Changes in Santa Barbara Mural Regulations

Santa Barbara Adds Mural Display Regulations

On August 6, 2024, the Santa Barbara City Council added to its municipal code to expand how murals are approved and regulated throughout the city. This was done as part of a broader adjustment to overall signage regulations, as part of Title 22 of the Municipal Code, covering Environmental Policy and Construction.

Previously, while there was significant regulatory language for how signage in the area needs to conform to their safety, aesthetic, and design standards as a city, murals were carved out from this regulation. While they do define what a mural is within the code, the clearly state under their definition of Sign, "a mural is not a sign."

With this change, Santa Barbara now has some clear guidelines around what's required to get approval for a mural, what defines a mural versus signage, and how it must be maintained by the property owner.

What does the new code say?

The largest change is having expanded the definition of what a mural is into a complete chapter regulating murals throughout the city. The city council recognizes the impact that murals can have on property values, the aesthetics of a city, and even the local economy. While before murals were mostly unregulated throughout Santa Barbara, they now make it clear that property owners now need to receive a permit from the city prior to painting a mural.

The Chapter also explicitly lays out what a mural is and isn't: defining it as a "one-of-a-kind, hand-painted, or hand-tiled work of visual art that does not contain any commercial messages that is either affixed to or painted directly on the exterior wall of a structure." This means that painted commercial signage (another specialty of ours) still fit into their existing regulations, and that to be considered a mural it must be done by hand, a definition we strongly agree with.

There are also a handful of reasonable considerations in place, such as it not interfering with identification of exits, fire escapes, or other points of egress; that it shouldn't contain obscene matters (as defined by the CA Penal Code); and that it doesn't promote violence or other illegal activities.

How do you get a mural permit in Santa Barbara?

Language around the permitting process is pretty straightforward, and similar to a lot of other cities in Southern California. The city uses their Arts Advisory Committee to regulate approvals around these murals. This committee, formed in 1985, historically dealt with artwork that would be placed in public areas owned by the city, but now their role has expanded to include reviewing public artwork on private property.

The permitting process here lays out a few crucial components that need to be included in the application:

1. Proposed design of the mural, in full color and drawn to scale
2. List of the proposed materials
3. List of the methods of application for these materials

In addition to ensuring that safety messaging is preserved, mural designs also cannot be "commercial in nature" or include an advertisement in their design. This is a pretty standard regulation for public artwork, but what's interesting is an additional caveat, that "murals may contain limited commercial elements so long as they are not considered commercial speech with the purpose of promoting a commercial transaction." It will be interesting to see where that line is drawn during approvals of public artwork.

While they don't lay out a specific channel for submitting an application (nor a specific format), you can find contact information on reaching the committee's member here.

Once received, the committee then reviews the mural designs at one of their scheduled meetings. They're looking for the following before issuing a decision:

1. Does the proposal present an "innovative and unique artistic vision"
2. Does it "complement the architectural design of the building [it will be painted on]"
3. Can the building safely hold the materials used
4. Does the proposed artwork "not detract from the character of the surrounding area or neighborhood"

These are of course regulations that are very reasonable for any permitted mural project, and, based on the language used here, don't look to define or constrain artistic vision or speech.

Unfortunately there is no timeline laid out for how quickly (or how) a decision is made and presented, but one could expect it to occur relatively quickly after their planned meeting.

Conclusion

While there are certainly downsides to regulating murals and other public artwork, generally regulations that are worded in this way lead to positive outcomes. Those in art advisory roles, especially at the municipal level, aren't attempting to constrain artistic expression, but are truly just trying to make sure that the character and expression of a city is being maintained, and when you have something as large and impactful as a mural, it's important to have someone looking out for the larger community.

Public art as we see it is incredibly valuable, and we should foster more of it in any way that we can. While some could see adding regulations as potentially stifling public art, we see it more as a very positive sign that mural artwork has reached a critical mass where city governments are putting more resources behind them. We're hopeful that the city of Santa Barbara can use this as a way to bring more focus to public art, and help drive up the quality of murals within their borders.

Of course, navigating regulatory environments, especially new ones, can be tricky and at times frustrating. So if you're looking to have a mural painted and need a partner in doing so (including working with the city), we're here to help! You can reach out via email at info@pullingpaintmurals.com or by phone at (310) 776-5567. We'd love to work together on a mural project.